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Administering Connections 7.0
Welcome to the HCL Connections documentation site. HCL Connections is social networking software designed for the workplace. Its features help you to establish dynamic networks that connect you to the people and information you need to achieve your business goals.
Administering
Run administration and maintenance tasks to keep your environment up-to-date. For example, learn how to customize your deployment or how to use the wsadmin utility to edit configuration files. You can also schedule tasks, maintain application databases, moderate content, or manage users and their roles.
Administering common areas
Administer the common areas of HCL Connections.
System maintenance
Make sure HCL Connections works properly in your particular environment.
Removing nodes from a cluster
You can remove IBM® WebSphere® Administration Server nodes from a cluster using the Integrated Solutions Console or using a command.

Administering Connections 7.0
Welcome to the HCL Connections documentation site. HCL Connections is social networking software designed for the workplace. Its features help you to establish dynamic networks that connect you to the people and information you need to achieve your business goals.
- What's new in HCL Connections
  Find out about features that are new or updated in this release of HCL Connections.
- Product overview
  Learn how to deploy, customize, and administer the HCL Connections social networking product.
- Planning
  Before installing HCL Connections™, study the system requirements, deployment options, and documentation conventions.
- Installing Connections
  To install HCL Connections™, you need to follow a detailed series of procedures.
- Installing or upgrading Component Pack for Connections
  HCL Connections 7.0 now supports the latest Component Pack based in Harbor, an open-source container and Helm registry hosted by HCL for the Component Pack build. Deployments that are new or carrying Component Pack 7 will use this approach for a simplified installation/upgrade process, while releases prior to 7.0 will first need to upgrade to Component Pack 7 using a zip file and a local Docker registry.
- Post-installation tasks
  After installation, you need to perform further tasks to ensure an efficient deployment.
- Optional: Installing and configuring Tiny Editors for HCL Connections
  The Tiny editors are alternative rich-text editors which can be installed for HCL Connections™. They provide additional features and extensive customization options not available with the default editor.
- Optional post-installation tasks
  Complete the post-installation tasks that are relevant to your deployment.
- Uninstalling
  Uninstall HCL Connections.
- Upgrading and updating
  Upgrade HCL Connections and its supporting software to the latest release and then update the installation with the latest interim fixes or cumulative fixes. Refer to the What's New in HCL Connections to review the features in the latest release and gather download links or links to the latest fix list and update strategy information.
- Administering
  Run administration and maintenance tasks to keep your environment up-to-date. For example, learn how to customize your deployment or how to use the wsadmin utility to edit configuration files. You can also schedule tasks, maintain application databases, moderate content, or manage users and their roles.
  - Administering common areas
    Administer the common areas of HCL Connections.
    - Administrator checklist
      Consider tasks that you might want to complete after you install HCL Connections and before users start using it.
    - Administration tools
      Use the wsadmin utility to edit configuration properties or run administrative commands.
    - System maintenance
      Make sure HCL Connections works properly in your particular environment.
      - Changing WebSphere® Application Server environment variables
        The directory paths to HCL Connections application data and other resources are given associated WebSphere® Application Server environment variables. If you change default paths in your environment, you must update the variables.
      - Changing the name of the session cookie ID
        The session cookie ID for HCL Connections is named JSESSIONID by default. Other products hosted by the WebSphere® Application Server often use the same name for their session cookie. If IBM® HTTP Server is hosting multiple web servers, you might want to change the cookie name of one of them to prevent the cookie from being lost when the user is redirected from one product to another.
      - Scheduling tasks
        The Activities, Communities, Files, Forums, News, Search, and Wikis applications use the IBM® WebSphere® Application Server scheduling service for performing regular tasks. You can use wsadmin commands to change the schedule by which a task runs or to disable a scheduled task altogether.
      - Maintaining application databases
        Each HCL Connections application stores data in a database, and some also store data on a file system. You must back up these databases and file systems on a regular schedule using the methods documented by the vendor from whom you purchased the database and file system that you are using.
      - Removing nodes from a cluster
        You can remove IBM® WebSphere® Administration Server nodes from a cluster using the Integrated Solutions Console or using a command.
        Removing nodes from a cluster using the Integrated Solutions Console
        You can remove nodes from a cluster using the IBM® WebSphere® Application Server Integrated Solutions Console.
        Removing nodes from a cluster with the command line
        Use the removeNode command to remove a node from a cluster.
      - Backing up and restoring data
        You must back up both the application databases and content stores on a regular schedule using the methods documented by the vendor from whom you purchased the database and file system you are using.
    - Managing content
      Use superusers, moderation, and other methods to manage HCL Connections content.
    - Administering the Widget container
      The Widget Container is the HCL Connections-specific integration of the Common Rendering Engine, also known as the CRE.
    - Managing access
      Manage roles, credentials, users, and directories, and allow third-party access to HCL Connections data.
    - Managing external user access
      Manage the access that people from outside your organization (external users) have to your HCL Connections implementation.
    - Customizing the deployment
      Perform optional tasks to customize your HCL Connections deployment.
    - URL Preview
      URL preview allows users decide quickly whether to follow a link by displaying a thumbnail preview for URLs.
  - Administering Activities
    Configure Activities to best meet the needs of your environment.
  - Administering Blogs
    Administer site-wide settings for Blogs from either the Blogs user interface or via the wsadmin client.
  - Administering Bookmarks
    You configure and administer Bookmarks using scripts accessed using the wsadmin client. Changes to Bookmarks configuration settings require a restart of the Bookmarks server before they take effect. Changes made using administrative commands take effect immediately.
  - Administering Communities
    Configure and administer Communities using scripts accessed using the IBM® WebSphere® Application Server wsadmin client.
  - Administering Files
    You administer Files using the wsadmin client to specify properties in a configuration file, or run administrative commands.
  - Administering Forums
    Administer Forums by specifying properties in a configuration file or running administrative commands.
  - Administering the Home page
    You can administer site-wide settings for the Home page from the Home page administration user interface or using the wsadmin client.
  - Administering the News repository
    You administer the News repository using scripts accessed using the wsadmin client. Changes to News configuration settings require node synchronization and a restart of the Home page server before they take effect.
  - Administering Profiles
    Profiles provides two types of administrative capabilities: configuration settings and administrative commands. You change configuration settings and execute administrative commands by running scripts from the wsadmin command line.
  - Administering Search
    The Search service provides a point for performing full text and tag searches across all the deployed HCL Connections applications. Search is a required application for all HCL Connections applications, and it must be running to prevent unexpected behaviors in the other applications.
  - Administering Wikis
    Configure and administer Wikis by using the wsadmin client to run administrative commands or by editing the configuration file directly.
  - Administering Component Pack for Connections
    Monitor the services for Component Pack for HCL Connections™ and troubleshoot issues.
- Customizing
  Customize HCL Connections™ to fit your environment.
- Security
  HCL Connections™ provides a flexible security infrastructure that supports an open, easily shareable data model.
- Mobile
  See the HCL Connections™ Mobile documentation for Connections Cloud and Connections on-premises.
- Developing
  Get information about how to use the APIs provided with HCL Connections™ and how to use Connections Customizer to modify the Connections pages that are returned to users.
- Troubleshooting and support
  To isolate and resolve problems with your HCL products, you can use the troubleshooting and support information. This information contains instructions for using the problem-determination resources that are provided with your HCL products, including HCL Connections™.

Removing nodes from a cluster

You can remove IBM® WebSphere® Administration Server nodes from a cluster using the Integrated Solutions Console or using a command.